Use That Big Brain Of Yours
by Slackslack
Summary: After his brother's death, Hiro begins to get really serious about bot fighting. He doesn't apply for college and instead makes his living with a gang of bot fighters. He's still the same Hiro, but is he a Hiro Tadashi would be proud of? Eventually, Hiro believes he is despite his life choices. Rated T to be safe!
1. Beginning

This did not feel real.

The service, the umbrellas, the fire... It all seemed to be in a fog.

Even as Hiro tood with relatives and friends, his brother's death did not seem real. His mind would not accept that he would never see his brother's smile or hear him say those things that were just so... Tadashi.

Things like "When are you going to use that big brain of yours?" Or, "Unbelievable!"

As Hiro contemplated this with his Aunt's hand on his shoulder, he scowled.

Those words were why Tadashi was gone.

Somehow, Tadashi had gotten him to really use his smarts. And where did it get him? Tadashi was at _Hiro's _presentation. Tadashi was at the school that night for him.

It was with a heavy heart that Hiro returned home, staring at his brother's side of the room. He stayed at the top of the stairs with Aunt Cass a few steps below, unsure of what to really do with himself. Usually Tadashi raced him up here and playfully fought with about one thing or another... Now there was only silence.

She gave him a pat on the back and said something, but it didn't really hit Hiro as anything important. Honestly, it sounded like his ears were full of water and the world was but white noise.

When he was sure Aunt Cass was going to stay downstairs, he felt his lip quiver.

Hiro walked and let his black jacket fall off of his small form as he went from the stairs to his side of the room. He kicked off his shoes somewhere near the foot of his bed before padding over to his computer chair. With a light thud he placed himself in it, facing Tadashi's side of the room. There on the bed was Tadashi's hat, just like Hiro had left it. Soon Aunt Cass would be bringing his things back from the lab and his room would be cluttered- Tadashi wouldn't stand for that, so Hiro would have no choice but to put things where they belonged.

It seemed only right since he was the reason Tadashi was gone.

As he felt tears begin to roll down his cheeks, he heard his computer beep behind himself. It appeared he had been sent a message, probably from Tadashi's friends. Who else would it be?

He spun slowly around in the chair, eyes drooping in sorrow and heart obviously not ready for contact. He moved the mouse to bring the computer from it's sleep, then opened the message. He was happy to find that it wasn't a video message like most that Tadashi's group sent, it was only text.

"You doing okay, Hiro?" It was from HoneyLemon. Hiro sighed, looking down at his hand on the mouse as he gently moved the chair left to right, contemplating if he wanted to respond. Honestly, no, he didn't. And so...he wouldn't. Plain and simple.

He turned the chair enough to slip off and walk to his bean bag chair, slouching into it while staring at his battle bot. As if he realized something was horribly wrong with it he was at his desk, toying with it for one reason or another.

And his computer beeped again.

He glanced over to read the message, still not intending to respond.

"Tadashi really wanted you to see his school, Hiro. He wouldn't want you to mourn him and throw away your future. You're so smart! Please come back, we can all hang! It'll be awesome!"

Hiro frowned at the message, holding a screw driver in one hand and his bot in the other. Hiro did not want to talk, and he did not want to go to school.

He put his things down and walked over to close out the message, the Bot Fight page still up in the background. It was almost instinct that he went to the schedule, find a location, looked at a map, and was on his way out.

He could hear Aunt Cass in her room sobbing as he walked down the stairs.

The door closed shut behind him as he shuffled out in his tan shorts and blue hoodie into the night, unnoticed save for a chubby cat watching him from the window.


	2. Black, Blue, and Baymax

Aunt Cass weakly smiled at Hiro as he came down the stairs, the afternoon sun streaking in through windows. She almost frowned as Hiro flinched away from the light, knowing he'd become used to being up all night.

"Good morning, Hiro." She offered him a plate with a pastry on it and he silently took it. "So, do you want to do anything special? It's your sixteenth birthday after all...That's a big deal!" He shrugged.

"Thanks for the doughnut, Aunt Cass." He sat at the table and nibbled at it, just like he did with everything else. Somehow the boy was skinnier than before, and he already hadn't had much to him. It worried his aunt, but she gave up trying to make him eat more. He was such a sweet boy, but she was beginning to think he was a lost cause when it came to his mental recovery...

"Well, you think about it. But I want to take you out tonight to celebrate!" Hiro looked up from his doughnut, shifting a little in his seat. As he did so, the hoodie he wore nearly fell off. It was much too large, and she tried to tell him that when he came home with it.

She was surprised, really. He had been so attached to his plain blue hoodie, then suddenly he came home with this deep blue hoodie with red circles on the shoulders and red lines down the front. He had a new favorite T-shirt too, it looked like. Instead of his red robot one, he wore a white shirt that looked similar to some drawings in Tadashi's blue prints.

Aunt Cass snapped out of her thoughts when Hiro spoke.

"I don't think I can tonight. I was going to meet up with Lynk and Reed tonight. We had some..." He paused. "We have some gaming planned." Aunt Cass frowned.

"Hiro, last time you told me you were out with friends gaming, I had to come and get you from the police station." Hiro didn't answer. "Hiro, I love you. You know that. And I know that Tadashi's death was hard on you... But getting into trouble and staying away from home? That won't make it better." She gave him a hopeful look, sincerely wishing for her words to affect him in some way. As he opened his mouth to talk there was a car horn from outside the cafe. Hiro slipped off of his chair and turned away from his aunt.

"Reed's here. I'll see you later, Aunt Cass." She could feel her heart breaking, just like it did every time he left. She knew where he was going, she just didn't know how to stop him. And it was so...strange. He wasn't a bad kid at all, he was never in any real trouble. It always seemed to be that Hiro would bot fight against people and they would get mad and try to hurt him. The cops would get involved, she would come and pick him up... No tickets were ever given to Hiro, no charges pressed... Even still, she knew he wasn't safe out there. But she had no way to stop him or protect him. So once again, she listened as the cafe door slid shut.

* * *

><p>It was fortunate that she had went to bed early that night.<p>

Hiro stumbled into store, barely catching himself on a table. He gasped for air and held his left side, trying to position himself so he could sit in a chair. He missed, falling to the floor and hitting his butt. He groaned, not really hurting from the short fall but more from the pain he already felt. Slowly, he got to his feet and sighed, replaying what had just happened in his head.

It always starts out right. He gets his bot out, people pool in, fights start, he wins... Then it always turns sour. People get mad, they try to physically harm him... But that isn't what he wanted. No! Hiro only wanted to fight and win. Get what he earned. And lately, getting what he earned was happening less and less and his "job" was becoming more dangerous.

Lately, his opponents had their friends throughout the crowd, ready to attack when commanded. But Hiro was smart, and he got his own buddies.

Once upon a time, Hiro had fought some small shot guy named Yama. He clearly remembered thinking that one of his opponents had promise. A girl with pink hair, goggles... He decided to make a sort of team. They would bot fight together, and they would fight together- And Hiro always made it very clear. Do not hurt them, just defend and run.

He got the pink haired girl, who introduced herself as Lynk, to join him while they were bot fighting. He knew she gave him an alias, and really it was the smart thing to do. But he didn't mind, he would have probably ended up giving nicknames to his friends anyways.

Just like Tadashi and his friends.

And he had gotten Reed, who was honestly just muscle, by pure chance. Reed offered to help them out. Hiro figured it was because he liked Lynk, but he didn't care to get into it. All he knew was that he had a group.

And unfortunately, said group had gotten split up when a bot fight session got ugly.

Things were thrown, people hurt, and here Hiro was.

He limped up the stairs, almost unable to lift his feet high enough to climb them, then let himself literally fall onto his bed. He winced as he fell on his arm, remembering he'd been hit there by someone for... God, he didn't even KNOW what.

"Ah!" He ground out in pain, just quiet enough that it wouldn't reach downstairs to Aunt Cass. He rolled over onto his left side and yelped in pain. "Ow! Darn it..." As he went to sit up, he could hear a noise coming from Tadashi's side oft he room.

He jumped and went to stand, afraid that someone was over there. As he did so, his leg gave out and he ended up on his knees.

Two seconds later, a large white...thing towered over him, offering a hand to help him up.

"Hello! I am Baymax, your personal health care companion." Hiro stared in confusion, vaguely remembering the robot. hesitantly he reached up and took Baymax's hand. "What seems to be the problem?" Hiro was pulled up and helped back onto his bed.

He stared at the robot, unsure of how to answer that. He couldn't get over the surprise that Baymax even was active.

"I didn't know you were still...Active." Hiro stated dumbly, sighing and closing his eyes. "I got beat up. It happens a lot." Baymax didn't waste any time. He immediately scanned his patient, then began to list all of the injuries Hiro sustained.

None of the list items were terribly serious. Nothing was broken or out of place, but there was a cut on Hiro's leg that would need stitches.

"Don't worry about it, it's fine." Hiro waved the robot away, going to lay down. "I'm tired, I just want to sleep." He closed his eyes and almost immediately regretted what he said. He felt the robot's finger poke his arm, then a sharp pain as a needle came out the robot's finger-...And Hiro was fast asleep.

Hiro woke up under his covers, feeling strange. As he went to sit up, everything was sore. He groaned and laid back down, pulling a hand up to his forehead. "What happened?" He asked himself, and much to his surprise he got a response.

"I gave you a sedative so that I could heal you. I have stitched the cut on your leg, bandaged the abrasions and cuts here-" Baymax stood next to the bed by Hiro, pulling a map of all of the injuries Hiro had up on his stomach. "Here, and here..." Hiro sighed.

"I told you not to!" He whined, and Baymax was quick to respond.

"Tadashi designed me to cure the sick and injured." Hiro was silent, looking over at Baymax. It was sort of sad to think about, but this _was _his brother's life work. It was what Tadashi had always wanted- to help people. He couldn't deny the robot of that, could he? "I noticed you have scars, Hiro. If you are being bullied, you need to tell an adult or someone your trust-" Hiro cut Baymax off while rolling out of bed.

"I'm not "_bullied_", Baymax. I just... I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time and I get hurt. That's all." Hiro stood and looked down at himself, frowning. He was still in the clothes from yesterday, bloody and dirty. Reluctantly he began to strip his bedding from his mattress.

"Perhaps you should be in the right place, then?" Baymax prompted. Hiro rolled his eyes.

"You don't get it. Just forget it, okay?" He threw the blankets in a basket near the stairs, then turned to Baymax again. Before he could say anything, he noticed how Baymax gave the other side of the room a sad stare.

If that was possible for a robot.

"Tadashi." He stated, and Hiro frowned.

"I need to get dressed, Baymax. Go...deflate, or whatever." Baymax looked to Hiro.

"I will go by Tadashi, then. Where is he?" Hiro frowned even more.

"He's gone, Baymax. He's been gone for two years." Baymax obviously did not register this, so before he could say anything else heart breaking Hiro stated, "He's dead. He died in a fire two years ago, Baymax." Baymax said nothing.

Hiro was silent as well, almost feeling bad. No one would have told him about Tadashi that way, so why did he say it to Baymax that way?

"Look, I'm sorry. I just... I don't want to talk about it." Hiro then grabbed a handful of clothes and went to change in a bathroom instead.

When he came back, he saw Baymax near his computer.

"What're you doing, big guy?" He asked, and Baymax turned and nodded.

"I have downloaded a database on counseling and loss." He then stepped forward and hugged Hiro.

As Hiro was gently lifted into a soft hug, he heard the phone Aunt Cass had gotten him for his fifteenth birthday go off. Baymax allowed Hiro to get out of the hug, and he watched his companion scrounge for his phone in some dirty clothes.

Hiro looked at the screen and saw that Lynk had texted him the address to a fight. As he went to get his bot, Baymax simply asked,

"Will you be in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Hiro paused, silent. Then he looked over.

"Yeah, I guess I will be."

Baymax walked toward him.

"Then I will be in the right place at the wrong time." Hiro gave him a look of confusion.

"What do ya mean, Baymax?" And as the robot responded, Hiro knew that his "job" would be a lot harder.

"I will stay by you and attend to your medical needs. It is my job to keep you safe."


End file.
